Tag: focus

Asia Pacific markets started the trading week with gains despite China reporting that its economy grew at the lowest official pace in 28 years. Fourth quarter GDP growth was 6.4 percent, which was also in line with expectations. While Beijing’s official GDP figures are seen as one of the crucial indicators of China’s economic health, many outside experts have expressed skepticism about the veracity of the numbers. “Falling producer prices and new export orders point to a slowdown in China’s grow

Asia Pacific markets started the trading week with gains despite China reporting that its economy grew at the lowest official pace in 28 years.

The world’s second-largest economy grew 6.6 percent in 2018, which matched analysts’ expectations, and was lower than a revised 6.8 percent growth in 2017. Fourth quarter GDP growth was 6.4 percent, which was also in line with expectations.

“I think what we’re seeing actually in the fourth quarter is that while the economy is decelerating, we actually still have some of the supports,” Helen Zhu, head of China equities at Blackrock, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Monday. “For example, for most of the quarter, from the export front loading impact that we had probably before the Argentina G-20 (summit) when people’s expectations regarding trade became a little bit more optimistic.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to a 90-day pause in tariff escalation at the G-20 summit in Argentina late in 2018.

While Beijing’s official GDP figures are seen as one of the crucial indicators of China’s economic health, many outside experts have expressed skepticism about the veracity of the numbers.

Raymond Yeung, chief economist for Greater China at the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, wrote in a note that China’s GDP numbers are “not an accurate gauge” of its economic growth. Still, he pointed out, the gap between the actual figures and the official targets usually shapes the government’s policy stance.

“Falling producer prices and new export orders point to a slowdown in China’s growth momentum,” Yeung added. “To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 2019, President Xi (Jinping) will still likely launch growth-supportive policies.”

The mainland Chinese markets, closely watched as a result of the ongoing U.S.-China trade fight, saw gains on the back of the data release. The Shanghai composite rose more than 0.5 percent to close at about 2,610.51 while the Shenzhen composite gained 0.607 percent to end its trading day at around 1,330.17. The Shenzhen component also advanced 0.592 percent to close at approximately 7,626.24.

An ad from McDonald’s Taiwan that sparked a row about whether it showed support for the country’s independence from China has been withdrawn. People in China protested against the ad online, accusing the company of supporting an independent Taiwan, according to a report on the Focus Taiwan website on Saturday. McDonald’s Taiwan said the ad promoted its Egg McMuffin and aimed to boost students’ morale, while McDonald’s China said it supported the “One China” principle. “We regret about the ad whi

An ad from McDonald’s Taiwan that sparked a row about whether it showed support for the country’s independence from China has been withdrawn.

The commercial, broadcast on YouTube, showed a student’s exam admission ticket stating her nationality as Taiwanese. She drops the ticket on the street and it’s run over by a truck, before being washed clean by a water sprayer. The ad then rewinds and the student is shown eating an Egg McMuffin, known as a Man Fu Bao — which reportedly has a similar pronunciation in Mandarin to “full of good luck.”

People in China protested against the ad online, accusing the company of supporting an independent Taiwan, according to a report on the Focus Taiwan website on Saturday.

McDonald’s Taiwan said the ad promoted its Egg McMuffin and aimed to boost students’ morale, while McDonald’s China said it supported the “One China” principle. “We regret about the ad which had stirred up such an unnecessary misunderstanding,” McDonald’s in China said on its Weibo page, according to Focus Taiwan. “We always hold a solid ‘One China’ stance and we are determined to continue to support China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The dollar was firm against the yen on Friday as growing optimism of progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks supported broader appetite for risk. Against the yen, the dollar tacked on 0.1 percent to 109.35 yen for its fourth-day of gains against the Japanese currency and just off a two-week high of 109.40 touched overnight. The pound managed to hold onto most of its overnight gains against the euro as traders wagered on a second referendum vote on Britain’s EU membership. While May has repeatedly reje

The dollar was firm against the yen on Friday as growing optimism of progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks supported broader appetite for risk.

A Wall Street Journal report on Thursday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had considered easing tariff imposed on Chinese imports lifted sentiment though a Treasury spokesman later denied the report.

Kumiko Ishikawa, senior analyst at Sony Financial Holdings, said while Beijing and Washington continue to negotiate, “expectations are that things will go into a positive direction.”

Against the yen, the dollar tacked on 0.1 percent to 109.35 yen for its fourth-day of gains against the Japanese currency and just off a two-week high of 109.40 touched overnight.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was largely flat at 96.056 after briefly rising to a near two-week high of 96.264 during the previous session.

The index, which has been hobbled since late last year by the Federal Reserve’s cautious stance on delivering further rate hikes, has managed to rebound about 1 percent from a three-month low of 95.029 touched just over a week ago.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States on Jan. 30 and 31 for the latest round of trade talks aimed at resolving the trade standoff between the world’s two largest economies.

The dollar held firm against the euro, while the pound was steady after rising overnight on hopes of a second referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union following Prime Minister Theresa May’s crushing defeat in parliament of her Brexit deal.

Over the next week, analysts said they expect focus will move to Thursday’s release of January business activity figures for the euro zone, including French data, that will offer some clues on the health of the economic bloc.

French business activity plunged unexpectedly into contraction last month, retreating at the fastest pace in over four years in the face of violent protests against the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

“Once the dust regarding Brexit and the anti-Macron demonstrations clears, then I think the market will focus again on the beginning of the rate-hike cycle by the ECB (European Central Bank) toward the end of this year,” said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Mizuho Securities.

“If that’ll be the focus, then I think there’ll be a big shift from the monetary-policy cycle of the U.S. to the euro area. That’ll cause a broader weakness of the dollar and strength of the euro.”

The single currency was up less than a tenth of a percent, last changing hands at $1.1397.

Sony’s Ishikawa said she expected the dollar to remain relatively strong versus the euro as long as worries over the health of the euro zone economy persist.

“The ECB is still said to raise interest rates in the second half of the year, but there is a possibility that will become difficult,” Ishikawa said.

The pound managed to hold onto most of its overnight gains against the euro as traders wagered on a second referendum vote on Britain’s EU membership.

While May has repeatedly rejected a second referendum, a vocal campaign in favor of holding a new vote has drawn the support of some lawmakers.

Sterling was last down about 0.1 percent at 87.82 pence, trading close to a two-month peak of 87.60 scaled overnight. It edged down to $1.2972 but was not far off a two-month high of $1.3001.

Greenberg, who was previously CEO of premium movie service Epix, had spoken to Walmart about developing a service aimed at “Middle America,” the people said. The initial success of the “Roseanne” revival last year inspired other content creators to go after that type of audience. Vudu has taken a small step in the direction of original content, agreeing to retool the 1983 comedy “Mr. The service’s focus will continue to be on a broader library of movies and shows. The company is also reportedly

Greenberg, who was previously CEO of premium movie service Epix, had spoken to Walmart about developing a service aimed at “Middle America,” the people said. The initial success of the “Roseanne” revival last year inspired other content creators to go after that type of audience.

But talks with Walmart broke down after Walmart couldn’t get comfortable with making a large investment in content, a business where it has no real experience and where competitors such as Netflix can spend more than $10 billion a year on new TV shows and movies.

Vudu has taken a small step in the direction of original content, agreeing to retool the 1983 comedy “Mr. Mom” into a digital series. The service’s focus will continue to be on a broader library of movies and shows. The Vudu business is under Marc Lore, Walmart’s head of e-commerce.

“Vudu has developed a strong platform, and we aim to continue to bring our customers more content, on more devices, at the best possible price,” Tara Raddohl-House, a Walmart spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Greenberg, meanwhile, has held talks with several other retailers, including Costco, about building out a service geared toward average Americans, but no agreement has been reached, said a person familiar with the matter. Costco didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The company is also reportedly exploring the launch of a streaming service for its top customers.

U.S. stock futures were slightly higher on Wednesday, following a parliamentary defeat for British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Dow futures were 76 points higher as of 2:12 a.m. ET, indicating a 26 point rise at the open, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were also higher. Traders were digesting news that the U.K. leader had lost a vote on her Brexit deal by 230 votes, which is believed to be the highest margin of defeat for any sitting government in British political history. Meanwh

U.S. stock futures were slightly higher on Wednesday, following a parliamentary defeat for British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

Dow futures were 76 points higher as of 2:12 a.m. ET, indicating a 26 point rise at the open, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were also higher.

Traders were digesting news that the U.K. leader had lost a vote on her Brexit deal by 230 votes, which is believed to be the highest margin of defeat for any sitting government in British political history.

May told lawmakers that her Conservative government “will listen” following the vote and that a statement will be made in Parliament on January 21 where the prime minister is due to present a “plan B” for the withdrawal agreement.

U.K. opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who leads Britain’s Labour party, said he has tabled a motion of no confidence in the government that will be debated and voted on Wednesday. Sterling was barely changed Wednesday, trading just below the flatline versus the dollar at $1.2855.

In other political news, the partial U.S. government shutdown — the longest in history — has extended into its 26th day, as a standoff between Democrats and the Trump administration over the president’s border wall money shows no signs of being resolved any time soon.

Meanwhile, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, made its biggest ever daily net cash injection via reverse repo operations, totaling $82.73 billion. The news came after comments from the Chinese state planner and Premier Li Keqiang suggested the country would inject more stimulus amid concerns of a slowdown in economic growth.

Construction and materials were leading the gains in early deals, with Lafargeholcim up by 2 percent. The stock was upgraded to buy from underperform by Bank of America. There was also some momentum in personal and household goods due to stock upgrades. The U.K. housebuilder Taylor Wimpey rose 3.4 percent and led the gains across Europe. Renault shares were under the flatline too after news that former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn was indicted on two new charges of financial misconduct.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.2 percent with almost every sector in positive territory. Construction and materials were leading the gains in early deals, with Lafargeholcim up by 2 percent. The stock was upgraded to buy from underperform by Bank of America.

There was also some momentum in personal and household goods due to stock upgrades. The U.K. housebuilder Taylor Wimpey rose 3.4 percent and led the gains across Europe.

The Swiss company Straumann was also among the top gainers, after its CEO said that it wants to increase sales five-fold within a decade, Reuters reported.

On the other hand, Orion dropped more than 6 percent after Jefferies cut its grade on the pharma company. The research firm argued that the current 4.5 percent dividend yield is not enough to support the share price, Reuters reported.

Furthermore, Flybe fell as much as 90 percent after a consortium of Virgin Atlantic Ltd, Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital Partners agreed to buy the low-cost airline.

Renault shares were under the flatline too after news that former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn was indicted on two new charges of financial misconduct.

Thanks to the Federal Reserve, the stock market could actually get some relief in 2019 after several months of turbulent trading brought 2018 to a historically weak close, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Friday. The major averages surged on Friday following Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statement that the central bank would remain “patient” with regard to hiking interest rates, paving the way for stocks to rise without fear of higher rates. “Today is a day to celebrate the flexibility and the terrific pivot

Thanks to the Federal Reserve, the stock market could actually get some relief in 2019 after several months of turbulent trading brought 2018 to a historically weak close, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Friday.

The major averages surged on Friday following Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statement that the central bank would remain “patient” with regard to hiking interest rates, paving the way for stocks to rise without fear of higher rates.

“We shook off one of the shackles that has bedeviled this market since October, and it left us with the possibility of a save for 2019, just when so many investors had already written off the whole year … after the first week of trading,” Cramer said on “Mad Money.”

“Today is a day to celebrate the flexibility and the terrific pivot that Jay Powell took this morning,” said Cramer, who has criticized the Fed for months about what he considered an overly aggressive interest rate agenda. “It takes a lot of guts.”

With that positive layout in mind, the “Mad Money” host turned to his game plan for the week ahead:

It’s been 19 years since billionaire Mark Cuban bought NBA team the Dallas Mavericks. For $280 million, Cuban became the majority stakeholder in the professional Texas basketball team in 2000, and his motives had nothing to with money. I did it because I love basketball,” Cuban, 60, tells CNBC Make It on Friday. When he first became the owner of the team, Cuban knew he had a lot to learn. Let’s see how things are operating and what’s working and what’s not working,” Cuban says in 2000.

It’s been 19 years since billionaire Mark Cuban bought NBA team the Dallas Mavericks.

For $280 million, Cuban became the majority stakeholder in the professional Texas basketball team in 2000, and his motives had nothing to with money.

“Never crossed my mind as an investment. I did it because I love basketball,” Cuban, 60, tells CNBC Make It on Friday.

Indeed, the star of ABC’s “Shark Tank” recently shared a 10-minute clip of interviews he did at the time.

“I love the Mavericks,” he says in a 2000 interview. “I am just a huge Mavericks fan. And I have just been blessed and put in a position where I can contribute.”

He was all in: “This is a business, but it is a business that I am willing to commit as much money as it takes. Whatever energy, funding, to make this team successful,” a 41-year-old Cuban says in the clip.

When he first became the owner of the team, Cuban knew he had a lot to learn.

“If you look at winning teams in the NBA, there has been a level of continuity to all of them. So, my focus is not going to be okay let’s go in there and make immediate changes, my focus is going to be, let’s go in there and learn. Let’s see how things are operating and what’s working and what’s not working,” Cuban says in 2000.

It was the first private company he did not found himself that he invested in, he tells CNBC Make It.

“Just like Broadcast.com and other businesses before that, it is time to go to work,” Cuban said in 2000. “And it’s time to really focus on the things I need to do and first is learning, getting fans into the arena and getting people excited and I think we are making significant progress there.”

“We’re not going to sit around waiting for the macro to change,” Cook told CNBC’s Josh Lipton in an interview Wednesday. “I hope that it does, and I’m actually optimistic, but we’re going to focus really deeply on the things that we can control.” In a letter to investors released after hours Wednesday, Apple blamed factors including a slowing economy in China and fewer carrier subsidies for its weakened revenue projection. The company announced it was lowering revenue guidance for Q1 to $84 bill

After warning investors to expect lower revenue for Apple’s fiscal first-quarter earnings, CEO Tim Cook said he plans to focus on the factors he can control, rather than wait for trade tensions between the U.S. and China to settle.

“We’re not going to sit around waiting for the macro to change,” Cook told CNBC’s Josh Lipton in an interview Wednesday. “I hope that it does, and I’m actually optimistic, but we’re going to focus really deeply on the things that we can control.”

In a letter to investors released after hours Wednesday, Apple blamed factors including a slowing economy in China and fewer carrier subsidies for its weakened revenue projection. The company announced it was lowering revenue guidance for Q1 to $84 billion, down from its previous projection of $89 billion to $93 billion. Apple also lowered its gross margin to about 38 percent from between 38 and 38.5 percent. Apple stock was down 10 percent at Thursday’s close.

General Electric confirmed its plans to separate its health care company, based in Milwaukee, WI, into a free-standing corporation. In the Pfizer venture, GSK CEO Emma Wamsley is replicating the deal she and predecessor Andrew Witte put together four years ago with Novartis. Earlier this year, she purchased from Novartis the remaining 38 percent of the business GSK did not own, giving it full control. For its pharmaceutical business, GSK can focus on drug discovery. GE Health Care has long been

GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and General Electric all made key announcements Wednesday signaling that health-care companies are shifting to focus their businesses on their greatest strengths and abandoning the diversification strategies that have characterized health care for the past two decades.

First, a quick summary of their moves:

GSK and Pfizer announced that they are merging their consumer businesses into a $13 billion company, with GSK owning 68 percent and Pifzer 32 percent of the joint venture.

GSK further said that it will split into two companies — pharmaceuticals on one hand and consumer and vaccines on the other – within three years of the closing of the Pfizer joint venture.

General Electric confirmed its plans to separate its health care company, based in Milwaukee, WI, into a free-standing corporation.

In the Pfizer venture, GSK CEO Emma Wamsley is replicating the deal she and predecessor Andrew Witte put together four years ago with Novartis.

Earlier this year, she purchased from Novartis the remaining 38 percent of the business GSK did not own, giving it full control. I anticipate that within a couple of years, GSK will acquire the remaining 32 percent of the Pfizer venture, which will be run by GSK’s current consumer head, Brian McNamara. For its pharmaceutical business, GSK can focus on drug discovery. The same goes for Pfizer’s pharmaceutical businesses.

With their new focus, I anticipate that both pharmaceutical companies will be active on the acquisition front in seeking new compounds, existing drugs, and smaller biopharmaceutical companies. The question remains as to whether they can compete in their own drug discovery labs with well-established biopharmaceutical research centers like Merck, Novartis and Roche.

Under the new leadership of CEO Larry Culp, GE is also moving rapidly to focus its business as well. GE Health Care has long been a strength of the company, the unit where former CEOs Jeff Immelt and John Flannery proved their mettle that got them promoted to the top job.

For the leadership of GE Health Care under CEO Kieran Murphy, this separation is a welcome move that will enable it to invest more in research and development and on its own bolt-on acquisitions that can broaden its base in the rapidly advancing field of medical imaging.

Culp then can focus on reshaping the rest of GE’s combination of jet engines, power plants, energy and industrial —deciding whether to spin off some of those businesses as well as improve GE’s battered balance sheet by paying down more of its debt. GE shareholders immediately signaled their approval of Culp’s moves, increasing its stock price 5 percent in spite of broadly-based declines on Thursday in response to the Fed’s interest rate increase. GSK, whose stock had risen 7 percent in response to its announcements, wound up the day on the plus side of the ledger as well.

The question remains, will these announcements trigger further focus on the rest of the health care sector? Under the leadership of new CEO Vas Narasimhan, Novartis has already moved aggressively to focus on its biopharmaceutical business by spinning off Alcon, its eye care business, and the remainder of its GSK venture and acquiring three major new biopharma technologies — gene therapy, cell therapy and radioligand therapy.

The other majors are also continuing to examine their portfolios as well. Fewer divestitures are expected among the medical technology companies like Medtronic, Stryker and Boston Scientific that are already highly focused on their portfolios, but more consolidation may be anticipated within that industry.

The shift to greater focus in their strategies will enable these health care giants to concentrate on the rapidly advancing technological opportunities and to excel in their respective fields with increased market shares, more efficient use of assets, and increased returns to shareholders. Their investors have already signaled that this is precisely what they want.

Bill George is a senior fellow at Harvard Business School, former chairman & CEO of Medtronic and the author of “Discover Your True North.” George served on the board of Novartis until 2009, but he doesn’t currently hold any shares in the company or any of the other companies mentioned in this column. Follow him on Twitter @Bill_George .

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.

Correction: General Electric had previously announced plans to separate its health-care unit and reiterated those plans Wednesday.